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Name: AKA
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007
"Hi, you've reached 416-xxx-xxxx...."
I have no explanation for it, but I'm incapable of leaving a message on an answering machine in one try. Maybe it's the availability of that "erase and re-record" option after you've pressed "#" that causes me to fumble my message the first (second, third, sometimes fourth) time around because I know I can start over if I forgot to throw in some information or I just sounded weird.
"Sorry, I'm not here to take you're call at the moment...."
Though when we call someone it's obvious we'd rather speak to that person right away than leave a message, but after that third ring when we know we're likely to hear their voice come up and ask for you to leave a message, I tense up and start racking my brain to come up with some coherent stream of words to be put together in a casual and clear message.
"Please leave me a detailed message..."
I use the basic who, what, where, when, how and why to sort out my thoughts before that tone goes off. Still I'm caught off guard and end up winging the message with a lot of suttering, mumbling and 'um' and 'annndd' and other filler words.
"..at the tone. Beep"
Oh crap, what did I need to say again? Oh right... "Ahem...Hi! This is AKA, I was calling in regards to... (who did I dial again? Ohh right.) um, I do need to hear back from you a.s.a.p. (shoot, should've said "as soon as possible", sounds better) please call me back at 905 (dammit wrong country!!!)..I mean, sorry, 042......Thank you (should I throw in a have a nice day? Why not, maybe they're having a bad one)...Have a good day (nice! I meant to say nice...ah well) ."
And when I do get through that message I have the urge to go back and listen to the jumble of sentences I've left on that poor soul's voice mail. As the playback starts I start editing my message for things I've left out and other things I didn't need to say. Then comes attempt #2. "Ok," I say to myself, "just get it all in with one shot then just HANG UP...my name, why I'm calling, and my number, it's easy! Aaaaand..Go!"
I'm not exaggerating when I say that about 3 days ago I was leaving a message for a potential hiring manager and I had to re-record my message Eight times. A few times my voice sounded squeaky. Once I forgot to put in my name. I started coughing at the beginning of another. Then a few times I didn't sound confident enough. Then in another I didn't sound friendly enough. Finally I blurted out a message (I had enough rehearsals after all) and hung up quickly before my finger had the chance to choose the option to review my message. I still haven't heard back from her...maybe one more try would've helped?
(You think that's bad? I haven't told you what I go through to set up my own voicemail...)
I have no explanation for it, but I'm incapable of leaving a message on an answering machine in one try. Maybe it's the availability of that "erase and re-record" option after you've pressed "#" that causes me to fumble my message the first (second, third, sometimes fourth) time around because I know I can start over if I forgot to throw in some information or I just sounded weird.
"Sorry, I'm not here to take you're call at the moment...."
Though when we call someone it's obvious we'd rather speak to that person right away than leave a message, but after that third ring when we know we're likely to hear their voice come up and ask for you to leave a message, I tense up and start racking my brain to come up with some coherent stream of words to be put together in a casual and clear message.
"Please leave me a detailed message..."
I use the basic who, what, where, when, how and why to sort out my thoughts before that tone goes off. Still I'm caught off guard and end up winging the message with a lot of suttering, mumbling and 'um' and 'annndd' and other filler words.
"..at the tone. Beep"
Oh crap, what did I need to say again? Oh right... "Ahem...Hi! This is AKA, I was calling in regards to... (who did I dial again? Ohh right.) um, I do need to hear back from you a.s.a.p. (shoot, should've said "as soon as possible", sounds better) please call me back at 905 (dammit wrong country!!!)..I mean, sorry, 042......Thank you (should I throw in a have a nice day? Why not, maybe they're having a bad one)...Have a good day (nice! I meant to say nice...ah well) ."
And when I do get through that message I have the urge to go back and listen to the jumble of sentences I've left on that poor soul's voice mail. As the playback starts I start editing my message for things I've left out and other things I didn't need to say. Then comes attempt #2. "Ok," I say to myself, "just get it all in with one shot then just HANG UP...my name, why I'm calling, and my number, it's easy! Aaaaand..Go!"
(You think that's bad? I haven't told you what I go through to set up my own voicemail...)
10 Comments:
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Sigh.
Bre - Oh I've done those too - but by the time I'm done I realize I made some stupid mistake and then attempt to cut the message down. Which gets me messed up all over again. Like I said - I'm hopeless.
'liya - You are not the least bit pathetic! In fact you are smart for not wasting your time and getting your point across just like you should. How teacher-ish of you ;)
"Hey, so man where the f*** are you nowadays! I have been trying to.."
Then I realize it's his voice mail. But before I can compose myself (and stop cursing), I hear "-ssage. BEEEP!"
And I am like "er...um.... er...."
Anyways I said I have no problem leaving messages, I just act like I'm talking to the person, I sound very natural.
But when recording my own OGM!!! That's a whole diff story! I must do it about a 100 times, until I end up settling. Its a pain. So now when I go on vacation, I don't change my VM for work...hehe...set my out of office on my email and leave :)
Mezba - I've done that too! Well, minus the f*** part :P
Ahmed - Everyone seems to be in on this script thing and I love it! With friends I'm not so worried since most of them are used to my verbal diarrhea
Mousehunter - Nice to know I'm not alone on having issues setting up my own VM! 100 times sounds like the right number to me - you don't want to sound too formal, just casual enough, but cool at the same time. Since I am neither casual nor cool, it's hard to pull off.